Daughters

The Mean Moms Club got together last night for another invaluable time of fun and wisdom sharing. I left with this profound sense of gratitude for all of our kids. Most especially, I was downright weepy in the car when I thought of how fortunate I have been with the girls.

If they have ever been embarrassed by me or my presence, they have never once let on to me. I have offered them an out on many occasions that they do not have to run and greet me or even act like they know me at certain functions, and they always act like I'm being silly.

And I have to say that I feel like the richest woman in the room when they run to give me a big hug and kiss. Who in the world could be luckier? Shameka is about to go off to college- and I already know where that road leads.

So, for now, not one sweet acknowledgement goes unnoticed by this mom. I'm saving every little note, etching every little smile into my memory.

I know this Ben Folds song is really a love song, and not to his kids, but these lyrics keep popping in my head right now.

I don't get many things right the first time

In fact, I am told that a lot

Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls

Brought me here

And where was I before the day

That I first saw your lovely face?

Now I see it everyday

And I knowThat I am

I am

I amThe luckiest

I have no idea why on earth this is spaced out the way it is, and cannot for the life of me get it straightened out. I apologize!

Loved and cared for

So, I got a new quilt for my bed. We had not had a new one since we got married 15 years ago, so I had given myself plenty of time to make my selection. I actually had another one that I've been watching for a long long time, but when the tax return came this one was marked down over half off and it sort of grew on me and it matches our gold walls. I love it. I mean, I really love it. And not just how it looks, but how it feels. I love the weight of a quilt- there's nothing like it. We had been using a silky very light coverlet that I had gotten at Family Dollar that Shawn hated and that brought me neither joy nor warmth.

A few nights ago I had gotten up in the night and when I crawled back into bed, I just loved the feeling of that heavy quilt settling on me. My friend Gwen Phillips told me that when she and her siblings were babies (back in the era when folks put babies to sleep in their cribs on their tummies!) her mother would lay a Baptist hymnal on their bottoms which felt like a mama's hand on them as they fell asleep. I've always loved that image. And in the middle of the night as I was settling under my quilt I thought for a minute that laying under that quilt I feel loved. So I decided that when I am under that quilt and can't sleep that I will meditate on knowing that I am loved by God, covered and lovingly tended to. Did I mention that I love this quilt?!!

From dust you have come, to dust you shall return

I love Britt-Arnhild's Lent meditation today.

Nice article about different ways to pray during Lent.

Just in case you were thinking of giving up Facebook for Lent.......

A Lenten gift to the earth......

Bridal Shower by George Bilgere

Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five peoplewho are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.

And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.

And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.

I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.

You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.

O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,


after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.
"Bridal Shower" by George Bilgere

Another tiny house

I love all the functional stuff about this place. I just wonder if the whole thing would lean and fall over if everyone moved to one end or the other! And would it be any safer than a trailer in a tornado? Anyway, pretty cool. For some reason the volume is wonky so you have to turn it up.

Sunday 5

Saw this over at Eternal Echoes and thought it might be good for some fun and a little bit on the Sabbath theme. Tell me how you would spend:

1. A fifteen minute break: Close the door, turn on some good music, and "walk" the finger labyrinth.

2. An afternoon off: Lunch with a friend, a nap, and to be home when the girls come through the door.

3. An unexpected free day: I'd meet my sister, my mother, and my aunt at the Antique Mall and for lunch at the Colonade.

4. A week's vacation: In a dream world? I'm seeing my whole family somewhere where there is a body of water and a cabin or a house. The kids and Shawn having a blast doing outdoors stuff, me in the house cooking and doing art and listening to music then joining them when I want to. A place to sit outside at night with a fire. Playing games before bedtime.

5. A Sabbatical: A week at one of the hermitage cottages at Sisters of Loretto, taking my meals with the sweet little nuns who look and sound like little birds at mealtime, with silence the rest of the time.

Tell me what you would do!

Hope of Spring

Today was the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Phoenix Hill Farmer's Market 2009. Every single Tuesday afternoon that I have pulled into that lot I have just felt so excited and proud that our neighborhood has such a great market. Our farmers have become our friends, adding even more value to the great food we are able to get from them. Starting last year we had music every week too which made it even more festive.

I have such a huge admiration for our friends who work the land to bring fresh locally grown produce and goods to the market each week. The first year, a late and unexpected heavy freeze cost most of our farmers the produce that was almost ready to bring to market, putting everyone off to a late start. Last year the spring was so wet that they weren't able to plant until late, and we saw another slow start to the season. Then the fall Hurricane winds took a heavy toll on their land and outbuildings, and left so many folks without power in town that business was very slow. The ice storm a couple of weeks ago followed by the heavy winds cost two of our farmers a greenhouse apiece. And still, they are the most resilient and pleasant lot of folks I've ever had the opportunity to work with.

It was a dose of good medicine to sit around the table with them today as it was snowing outside to anticipate spring and new crops and deeper friendships.

TMI!

This is a picture of Herbie and I looking very perplexed as we try to figure out our new web cam. Herbie was interested to know who that handsome gentleman was, and I was somewhat aghast at the old woman he was keeping company with.

DARE

After watching this I'm struck with how very safe I've been playing things, so much so that I cannot think of what I want to dare to do or be.

Wednesday Link Love

I just love chalkboard paint!

And I've been thinking of how fun it would be to have this lace floor or doilie walls.

I love this woman's collage style!

A lucky little girl and her twin siblings are about to come to live with Amy and Rich as foster children, and maybe to be a forever family. I want to go live at Amy's house!

This site never ceases to make me laugh, usually out loud!

I can't wait to read this!

The Little Rascal

About ten years ago our neighbor and good friend Cindy went through a "season of strays". We laughed and said that the dogs had put a mark on her house much the way hobos once marked the foundation of a house indicating that a generous and sympathetic soul resided there. In a very short period of time, several dogs showed up on her doorstep. Cindy found good homes for all but one. The little Border Collie she named Rascal stole her heart. Unfortunately, Cindy's husband Dave was not quite as taken with Rascal as Cindy was. He kept encouraging Cindy to find a home for Rascal, especially as she began tearing up things around the house and trying the patience of their elderly dog Papillon. Cindy made a number of half-hearted attempts, and a couple of serious attempts to find a home for Rascal.

One night Cindy came flying up my front steps with Rascal on her leash, and a huge bright red bow tied around her neck. Dave had "given" Cindy Rascal for her birthday!

When the girls came to live with us, Shameka fell in love with Rascal. On her 9th birthday when we told her she could invite someone over for a sleepover, she chose Rascal! We have an adorable picture of the two of them snuggled together in Shameka's bed.

One New Years Eve while Cindy and Dave were hosting a party, Rascal became so frightened of the fireworks and gunshots that she got scared and ran off. We spent hours that night scouring the neighborhood sticking up posters with Rascal's picture, and after giving up for the night all went home to fitful sleep worrying about Rascal. Around 3 a.m. Cindy heared a noise at the door, and there was a tired and disheveled Rascal. That little scare began a new tradition. Rascal began coming to our house to stay on Thanksgiving and New Years Eve, both times that Dave and Cindy host big gatherings at their house. She also stayed with us over her summer vacations. Well, Dave and Cindy's vacation technically, but Rascal showed up with leash and bowl and made a beeline every time straight to the air conditioning vent- something she was not used to having at home. She was all talk and little action, but you never had to wonder if anyone was at the door or around your house, or even down the block thinking about coming to your house!

To our great sadness, Rascal crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Thursday night. Our hearts were broken with Cindy as she made the long trek to the vet, and then the long trek home alone.

I hold out hope that Rascal and Weber will forever spend New Years Eve together and that Rascal has her own a/c vent somewhere to lay on. We will miss her sweet little spirit and her faithfulness to us all.

What's not to love

About these two?!! Saw them on Valentines Day at Centre College and they were amazing! They were also very generous, giving us a good 2 hours and 45 minutes of pure joy.

Father and Daughter (Michael Dudok de Wit)

I've been missing my dad a lot over the past couple of weeks. This sweet sweet film made me cry with sadness but also with hope and with great gladness that I was a little girl who had a dad and forever will be.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Maybe because it's late and I'm tired, but finding this site has made my day and this post made me snort and laugh out loud! It has three parts- the others are here and here. And so, with love, I share them as my Valentine to you.

OH, and while admiring Cake Wreck, check this out.

Her Strength/Our Strength

Her Strength is in Her Principles

by Elizabeth Layton

Wednesday Link Love

I wish Kendra and Shameka had this bed. Heck, I would love love love to take a nap in one of these. (the bottom one!)

Love these fun little Valentines!

This great printable check list is nice for work projects or school projects or making it through the day!

Love these prompts and the art that is coming from them!

I want to make some of these.

Seems like maybe I might need one of these with the way weather is going in Louisville!

A Blessing that Re-Frames things for me

For Presence

Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.

Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.

May anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.

Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.

Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

A nice blessing to focus on when everything around me is screaming "scarcity" , reminding me of abundance. I wish that I had written, "Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul". Oh, and the picture is "Divine Presence" by S. Artis

Bossy Bathroom

Just added these to my bathroom. Am I too controlling?!!!

One week from tonight!

Seeing Lyle and John in Danville on Valentines Day!

Love Pug

This sweet boy is Herbie. Well, he's not a boy- he's an old man. And he gets really annoyed when we say he's sweet. My kids gave Herbie the Love Pug to me for Mother's Day about 5 years ago. He's at least 17 years old now, hasn't had the use of his back legs in 4 years, and lately has become so hard of hearing that we have to be careful to let him know we are in a room so we don't scare him.
Now that we've had Herb, I can't imagine us ever NOT having a pug. Such comedians, these puggies. There's something very endearing about sleeping with a loudly snoring pug! I've found no shortage of pug fans on the internet. The AOL Pug Board group is a group of just about the finest folks I have ever been a part of, and they are fiercely loyal to their pugs and the others who love them. We collect money for pugs that need surgery, we do card showers for folks going through a hard time. I have it written in my funeral arrangements to be sure to let the Pug Board know that I have passed.
So Herbie has not expressed an interest in his own blog, but we are duly impressed with those pugs who DO have blogs.
Pugs like Shelby (and we like her new brother Vin too!)
I've been loving Henry, Benjamin, and Luna for a long time now, and now they have added sweet Sol.
My newest interest is Mason.
Pugs really are little good will ambassadors!

Wednesday Link Love

So, how about funkifying a family photo?

My favorite book for Valentines ever....

Love the hand heart!

If I weren't a total failure at snowflake making I would have a snowflake curtain.

And I'll end with this lovely poem.

Crystal Forest

My friend Dan taped this at the farm this week.

Postcard from Summer

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

In every Winter there is the hope of fresh strawberries and tomatoes and long lazy days.

In every Summer breeze there is the memory of the crackling of the icy tree branches at the farm as they moved with the wind.

Love Story

I have the honor of spending alternating Friday afternoons in Mother Dear's kitchen with Cheryl. She is Cheryl's maternal aunt, and really a second mother to Cheryl. She is my wise friend. I've been reading all kinds of tributes to love on the internet lately as Valentines Day approaches, but none sweeter than this one!

The picture above shows the 100 Chinese characters for blessing. They are all the same character for blessing, but each one is written differently. It is amazing that a Chinese character can be written in so many different ways artistically.

On the day following the Inauguration, my pastor led the Wednesday night gathering in a time of blessing for our new President. She shared some beautiful blessings that were already written and we added in the President's name as we read them aloud. She asked us to come the following Wednesday night with our own blessings for President Obama and we would weave them all together. We got snowed and iced out, but I had already put mine down on paper. Others?

May you seek out and be blessed by the counsel and insight of wise women-

intuitive, empowered, fierce-loving, resilient, creative, generous, tenacious women of color and women of size, old women and young women, women with deep laugh lines and women with deep sadness like pebbles in their pockets, deeply spiritual and completely irreverent women. Moms and aunts and sisters. Astronauts and story tellers and domestic workers.

May you seek out and be blessed by the counsel and insight of wise women. And we are all wise!